"The Maggie B." by Irene Haas

The story begins with Maggie making a wish,

North Star, star of the sea,
I wish for a ship
Named after me,
To sail for a day
Alone and free,
With someone nice
For company.

What I love about this is that her wish is rewarded, and her someone nice is her baby brother. I love to read children stories that show people loving their siblings...what a waste to read a book in which a person is preoccupied with their annoyance at someone else! This book is charming, and if you don't want to sail on the Maggie B. for at least a day, I'll eat a boot.

Lucy loves any book with girls as the heroine.

Jack loves the baby brother, and says, "I be the baby!"

(Scholastic Book Services, 1975)

"First Book Of Sushi" by Amy Wilson Sanger

I love this board book, despite the fact that I can't pronounce a good amount of the words inside. The nice thing about that is my audience has no idea whether or not I'm pronouncing it right. This little book has a wonderful cadence to it, and the pictures are works of sushi art. Every time I read it, I think of my sister and her kids.

Miles will actually sit through this book! He gets angry when I turn the page to read the last sentence on the back cover.

(Tricycle Press, 2001)